Elders scouting for board talent

The rural services company is also eyeing off avenues to expand in China and Vietnam, including extending its 14 years of Indonesian beef feedlot experience into one or both countries.

China, Vietnam and Indonesia are among Elders' current live export markets for beef and dairy cattle.

The 175-year-old business also has an imported meat processing and distribution business in Shanghai supplying a growing market to chefs in top-end Chinese hotels and restaurants.

After four years of dramatically scaling back its debt-heavy conglomerate structure to focus solely on agribusiness again, Elders management expects to report a good half-year performance in May, despite recent dry season and live export headwinds.

Chairman Hutch Ranck said the company wanted to make the most of its strong position in the market and diverse spread of farm service and supply chain interests.

It was time to plan ahead on a three- to five-year growth agenda with help from an additional (fifth) director who he wanted drawn from the agriculture community.

"We're working very effectively as a tight board - three non-executive directors - but it's time to reach out for another director who understands our broader market and relates well to clients' experiences," he said.

Mr Ranck, a former boss with industrial chemical giant DuPont, became chairman in an unusual boardroom shuffle a year ago when then chair Mark Allison switched to the managing director's role.

The other two directors, former investment banker James Jackson and grain and milling industry accountant Ian Wilton also joined the board at the same time.

"We don't want to discriminate with our selection process, but we're a company which believes in diversification at all levels, and that includes encouraging female positions," Mr Ranck said.

"We're taking some extra effort to have a good look for qualified people who might fit this specific board role.

"It would be a good outcome if we could appoint a female, although gender is not our only focus.

"We want somebody who has something in common with what we do, which may include finding a grower-producer."

Women directors are few in most Australian companies, particularly in agribusiness, with less than 20 per cent of the board room positions on Australian Securities Exchange top 200 companies filled by females.

Elders has appointed boutique executive search and consulting firm Hattonneale to do the head hunting work, anticipating to have its new director appointed within six months.

Having cleared the past year's sizeable hurdles of re-capitalising the business, slashing debt and lifting safety and operational performance, company directors wanted Elders to now further cement relationships with its client base which ranges from farmers to commodity processors and exporters.

Mr Ranck said a director with good a understanding of, and empathy for, a client's position would be important in helping guide the company's relationship strategies and identifying growth opportunities.

Ideally the right candidate would be "board-ready", possibly with past accounting firm or banking sector career which shifted more recently to first-hand farm or agribusiness service company roles.

Mr Allison said past board experience might range from a regional business, to a school board or charity body - "it doesn't have to mean somebody from an ASX200 company".

Last year's director recruitments showed there was a lot of good agribusiness talent about and those active in agribusiness also understood international trading, which was an important part of Elders' business agenda and its clients' earnings.

Elders is currently "scoping" feedlot expansion options, including greenfield prospects in Vietnam and, or, partnership possibilities with existing operators in China and Vietnam.

Mr Allison said existing Chinese-based business Elders Fine Foods (EFF) would benefit further from additional machinery investment and demand for premium meat lines, having enjoyed a profit turnaround in the past year which exceeded budget expectations.

While Chinese spending had dampened with Beijing's crackdown on bureaucratic lifestyle excesses, EFF's customer base continued to grow, particularly as western hotel and restaurant chains opened in new cities servicing an increasingly mobile and affluent guests.

Elders also has a small staff presence in Vietnam currently servicing its live export trade to the region.

Closer to home, live export trade operations had encountered some shrinkage because of reduced beef import quotas set by Indonesia and slower dairy heifer export activity to China triggered by depressed global dairy prices and milk powder stockpiles in China.

"However, overall we've had a very solid financial performance given the reduced activity in live exports and in parts of the cropping sector, particularly in the cotton inputs business," Mr Allison said.

The company's resilience had being aided by its eight-point plan to achieve a $60 million profit by 2017, which includes savings strategies and a focus on retail products, financial services and product distribution opportunities.